Bloated julidochromis?

[Richard]

Hi guys;

Again one of my julidochromis dickfeldis have gotten swollen up. Im not sure if its bloat or not as it is eating normally, the one that had it before also ate normally but died afew weeks after. Im not sure how to cure it, hopefully its not liek tropheus bloat and is un-cureable. Coudl it possibly be my water quality? Ive checked everything and all is fine, only thing i can think of is a water change i skipped but surely it couldnt have impacted it that bad. Any thoughts and opinions appreciated.

cheers; Richad

[YeW]

odd. I'd separate the fish in a hospital tank.

Try some melafix and perhaps a broad spectrum antibiotic compound (eg: methylene blue).

Is the fish young? Could it be somekind of deformity rather than bloat per se?

[CThompson]

If the fish is eating, it is not bloat.

Bloat is not “un-cureable”.

Skipping one water change will not have this impact.

Saying your water is “fine”, doesn’t tell us anything - you will need to put down such basics as pH, hardness, ammonia, temperature.

Do you use Seachem salts? If not, how do you maintain a high pH?

Did you follow Yew’s advice – how did it go?

What was/is your principle food source?

Some times fish just get sick, but more often than not I wonder if it isn’t caused by something we did, or something we didn’t do.

Craig

[Richard]

Hey Craig;

Here are the parametres of my water;

Ammonia: 0ppm

pH: 7.8

KH: 250ppm

GH: 160ppm

Temp: 27.5c

I use Seachem Rift Lake salt aswell as tang buffer

The fish are fed NLS cichlid formula and occasionally frozen BS

I followed Daves advice and added Melafix, yet unfortunately i found the little guy dead in a cave.

Would like to know the cause though as this is the second one to die from this.

cheers; Richard

[huzzy]

When you said he was feeding, did you watch long enough to notice if he spat the food out?

Sorry for the loss.

[CThompson]

Sounds like your water is fine, and food is good too.

Your photo didn’t show the fish clearly enough. Was the fish big all over (i.e. swollen from the inside), or was it bigger due to the scales sticking out? It looks a little like the latter.

If only this species has died, I’d guess that maybe there was something wrong with the fish (latent) when you bought it.

I don’t know what else was in the tank, tank size, other inhabitants, how long it was set up – all may play a part, or may not.

Sorry, I’m not much help. From the photo the tank looks set up with decent rockwork.

Disease diagnosis can be tough, for me the most difficult thing in the hobby to do. It sounds like one of those things that I chalk up to “it can live/it can die”, and "thank-goodness it didn't affect the whole tank!".

Craig